Studies from the Center for Disease Control and elsewhere have compellingly documented a rapid increase in the incidence of autism in the United States. WHAT THE HELL IS CAUSING IT? Given the enormous human and societal costs of this malady, few practical scientific questions are more important to we Americans, in our current era. Whether…
The U.S. Department of Education recently published a report that they prepared for Congress summarizing the gains achieved by children using computer-based training in reading and mathematics, comparing randomly assigned classes of children who did or did not use these tools (“Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First Student Cohort”; Report…
Each year I deliver a “guest lecture” in a medical ethics course at Stanford. My friend Bill Hurlbut, a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, is the course director. The issues that I raise in this course were addressed in part by an interesting cover story in the March 11th New York Times Sunday…
Come join me this Wednesday, June 28th, on the social discussion website Reddit to talk about brain plasticity. Reddit has around 250 million users and provides a great opportunity to interact with, and educate, the public on what it means to have a plastic brain. Invite your colleagues, grad students, friends and family to publicly…
The San Francisco Giants just happen to be the baseball team that I usually root for. Unfortunately, they’re having a terrible year, and after a 7-game losing streak (and counting) are currently deep in the cellar in the National League West. “There’s always next year” is the baseball fan’s old lament. But alas, the Giants…
It’s Brain Awareness Week, and we’ll be hearing about breakthroughs in basic science that could lead to big advances in how we live. Yet, most of the discoveries will require decades of further work, before they help people. But, what if we had a time machine and could travel ahead to see which of…
Dr. Michael Merzenich conducted the seminal experiments that led to the discovery of lifelong plasticity — that the brain changes chemically, physically, and functionally based on sensory and other inputs at any age. Last year, Dr. Merzenich was made a Kavli Laureate, the highest honor in neuroscience. He has been elected to both the US National Academy…
I just spent several days talking with scientists and lecturing in Australia. The summer months (our winter months) are a wonderful time to travel Down Under. The cities are lively, the sun is out, and people are in cheerful mood—which is amplified just a little more in Australia than I most places in the world.…
In the January 19th issue of JAMA-Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, a research team from Washington University (St. Louis) School of Medicine reported interesting outcomes from a brain training strategy that appeared to help a significant proportion of individuals living with severe tinnitus.1 The nature of these benefits—and other outcomes from this carefully conducted trial—are provocative…